Upper Deck Wows North American Retailers at the Las Vegas Industry Summit

Posted On 20 Mar 2015 / 125 Comments

For shop owners who attended the annual Las Vegas Industry Summit, it was clear that Upper Deck was there to help them grow their business. Our corporate room was set up to show off all the different ways we could help retailers to better merchandise their shops, engage their customers and develop new collectors. Check out this behind the scenes look!

The Upper Deck Co-Op Corner was there to showcase all the things that owners could be doing in their shop, primarily by working through their Authorized Distributor, to better their store. We are excited for the opportunity to work with shops to bring a variety of tools like we showcased here to their customers.

Certified Diamond Dealers were able to play Puck-O for apparel, boxes, notebooks, signed pucks & more!

A cool photo opp Upper Deck life-size frame was also on hand as an item shops could invest in for their shop.

Our corporate area also offered attendees a nice place to relax and have some fun. Upper Deck hosted a viewing party on Selection Sunday and handed out packs of the company’s new March Madness Basketball product.

Upper Deck had a huge selection of items on display for shops to check out, but ESPN also loved what the saw and conducted several interviews with UD staff.

Upper Deck also conducted the company’s popular Expired Redemption Raffle at the show and fans who scored cards should be receiving them in the coming weeks!

The big moments came during Upper Deck’s Corporate Address where close to 200 Certified Diamond Dealers packed into the large conference room for staff to run through new products and programs for 2015 and beyond. There Mike Phillips (Vice President of Sales) and Jason Masherah (President of Upper Deck) were able to discuss UD’s long-term renewal with Michael Jordan. They shared that products like 2014-15 SP Authentic Basketball will be the last trading cards releases hoop fans will see with autograph content of MJ and LeBron for some time to give the market time to correct on the value of signed cards for two stars. Upper Deck is very serious about making sure autographs of these athletes are not oversaturated in the market.

And then UD shared a tribute to a former attendee when we presented the Steve James Award to Kenny Der from Imperial Garden Sports Collectibles for his great work in engaging new fans and growing the category for fans that visit his shop.

Congratulations Kenny!

Then the fun came in as Upper Deck gave these shop owners a fun preview of 2014-15 NHL® Fleer Showcase where they could also score some great prizes for their shops like these Upper Deck Authenticated Wayne Gretzky signed blow-ups!

Shops loved getting an early preview on Fleer Showcase Hockey!

And they were even more excited to score autographed memorabilia from The Great One!

The best giveaway from a shop owner’s perspective are the annual Upper Deck Industry Summit black boxes which yield 1-2 limited-edition autograph cards produced for this show! Most shops bring these back to use as prizes in their shops, but collectors can sometimes find these cards available on online auctions sites as some owners will use them to help offset the expense of attending the show!

Another memorable moment was the NHL®, NHLPA and Upper Deck co-sponsored lunch. Shops got to learn about the great rookies this season like Johhny Gaudreau, Jonathan Drouin, Aaron Ekblad and more while also hearing about the exciting opportunities that exist next year for the highly touted prospect, Connor McDavid.

And since this event is all about making the hobby better, we want to hear from you. Give us your one great idea to improve trading cards for future generations that we can put into place in the comment section below. We will hook one of you up with an Upper Deck Random Acts of Kindness that includes one of these limited Upper Deck Industry Summit black boxes for FREE!

125 Comments

I know you only asked for one great idea. But, hey, hopefully one of these ideas is a great one! Perhaps in place of a redemption, could be a card or two inserted that gives one fan a trip to the game of their choice, or, a Stanley Cup finals game, with a meet and greet with the players! That would be pretty cool!

7. Expand to more sports such as cricket, lacross, soccor, poker, pool, soccor, and maybe even equestrian and hoese racing. Sports like that. This will appeal to more countries like the uk and other parts of Europe.

Thanks for this. I’m not a dealer, so it’s interesting to see these behind the scene details.

My one great idea to improve trading cards for future generations:
Start putting advanced stats on the backs of hockey cards

– this year, advanced stats have started making an impression on the hockey community. Including these stats on the backs of hockey cards would be innexpensive, but show a remarkable commitment to the future of hockey stats, just the sort of ground breaking things that upper deck is known for. Future hockey collectors would be able to see these stats and appear at the same time as their increased use with the game.

Followup. A second idea that is more of a guilty pleasure than for future generations. With UD having and exclusive NHL license & your fantastic art department you are the only company that can pul this off.

-these cards would feature future (of past) draft picks or what might have been with the draft lottery. If buffalo wins the lottery, its expected that Connor McDavid will be picked first overall, but, what might have been if say, Toronto won the lottery and show Connor McDavid in a Toronto jersey? Future generations will know where the greats will play, but they may not know what almost came to be.

Looks like a great summit! My suggestion would be to have a special product for Authorized Group Breakers. Like what you do currently with Hobby/Retail, but make it Hobby/Certified Group Breaker. Just add a couple a of unique inserts to each. Don’t cut out the Hobby stores, but maybe just on a release or two eliminate the retail versions and do the group breaker concept. Thank you for the forum to provide input!

Collecting trading cards have been a passion for many people like me. The thing I love about trading cards are the pictures which strikes awe and amazement at seeing great moments in sports history. The thing I would like to improve about trading cards is the quality in the pictures on the card, and more surprises in each pack such as redemption cards. I guess that since we call them trading cards, we should be able to trade cards online with others and be able to complete our collections without spending any money. I guess that the prices of the boxes could be a little cheaper since some people can’t afford to buy such great products such as Upper Deck products. I also guess that there should be a greater effort put into promoting trading cards because otherwise how would the world know about trading cards? I think if you would accomplish things, trading cards can be more popular and better.

I think it would be a strong idea to cut down on autographs for all top stars, much like what you’re doing with Jordan and LeBron for basketball. And I would add to that to create an elite tier for top stars, past and present, their autographs should only appear as hard-signed entries into releases. So while this may mean you don’t see Sidney Crosby, Carey Price, Wayne Gretzky, etc. autographed content in all releases, when you do see their signature cards in SP Authentic or The Cup (or even unannounced special entries into UD1/UD2), it enhances their value dramatically.

So many great things are already going on. My ideas may seem odd, but who knows. here are my top 5

Idea #1. Special cards with codes for an online fantasy league with prizes at the end of the year?

Idea #2 Redemption for an official upper deck card with a picture of the winners choice? (So new collectors can have a chance to be a young gun, mvp etc) or points that can be saved and spent on packs, boxes or single cards.

Idea #3 free promo pack when you donate a certain amount of cards to charities?

Revitalizing the trading card industry for future generations is vital to keeping the hobby alive and requires the incorporation of technology. Creating an Upper Deck “Kids Only” website would give eager young collectors the opportunity to interact and discuss their favorite UD cards and athletes. Also, the “Kids Only” website would allow collectors to showcase their collection to the world and possibly find cards they have been searching for. Virtual cards and awards could be unlocked for kids that complete a specific set or help start a friend begin their card collection. Creating this website would encourage kids to share the joy of card collecting with friends and help grow the hobby and popularity of Upper Deck for years to come.

Perhaps one suggestion which the comic book industry uses is to offer an annual free pack day, just something to spark an interest in trading cards to young children who may not normally buy cards. Another idea is to promote or market trading cards to be sold at convenience stores or grocery stores as it use to be in the 70’s. That would spark interest to children who normally not goto a card store.

To attract more kids, go back to your roots. I remeber in 1990 openeing a pack of cards and the pack having like 10-12 cards in it, no SP rookies, some cool looking holograms, all stars, trophy winners, and stats on the back. The big sets were fun to collect, 90-91 UD Hockey was iconic, but basic. You could go to the corner store and buy a pack of cards for like $1-4. Kids don’t care about long term value, they care about the players. You need one basic cheap set for young kids to chase, no sp’s, no jersey or auto cards, something you can find at the corner store.

I don’t know that I have one great idea, but maybe some small ones.
I have a 10 year old son that I am trying to introduce to the hobby. He comes and goes in spurts. Really into it for a little while, then couldn’t care less for long stretches of time.
My thought would be to have some sort of father and son promotion, contest, set, etc., that we could do together.
Something that we could work together on and bond over this great hobby.
Thanks for the chance to share.

I got plenty of ideas to make it better for future generations, the first is bring back the chance to win an uncut sheet of your product. If you make it really cool kids will hang up in their rooms! The next idea is to get packs to into kids hands, you could do a promotion where you give out packs to kids at Sporting events or at schools for good grades. The last one is about creating traditions amongst fathers and sons to give each other cards for Father’s Day and for each other birthday. You could some how promote that maybe with a cool drawing for a video or commercial contest.

This hobby was built on focusing on completing sets, for evidence of this notice how difficult it is to find vintage unmarked checklists!
Somewhere in time base cards began to be viewed by some as filler between their “Hits” and are soon discarded.

While player collecting and “Hit” focused products can be rewarding in themselves.
I would suggest a renewed focus on set collecting.

Perhaps a contest or reward for those completing and displaying their completed set on social media or at their local Brick and Mortar Hobby shop.

This could be ideal for attracting a younger audience, as base cards are more plentiful and typically at a price point that is reasonable.

This could be applied to both new products (assisting Distributors and Retail shops) and vintage products (assisting Hobby Shops and growing interest in the history of the hobby).

It could help to maintain value in base cards and vintage cards.

This could be applied to base sets, master sets and even parallel sets.

This would also provide exposure and advertising for Hobby Shops, Distributors and Upper Deck.

It could also provide a means for set collectors to be aware of each other and allow them to connect with each other, further growing the hobby.

I know that your sets currently come out, from low end to high end, but what’s really missing in a set for me is something super affordable, that will include all the rookies live and not as redemptions. It needs to break the rules and come out at the end of the season, but be really affordable, no more than $39.99. To keep the cost down, don’t include any auto’s or memorabilia cards, just cool inserts like the good old days, maybe a Team Canada insert set that is more affordable to collect each year as the POE canvas sets can get very pricey, but they include the most sought after Team Canada juniors everyone wants in their collection year after year.

On of my favorite things in cards is game dated memorabilia, with the cards stating the stats the player achieved
In that jersey. Very rarely seen in cards I would love to see more of it. Thanks
Ohh and as someone else said. A database that’ has photos of every patch card to eliminate fakes been made.

1. Have a Canadian manufacturing and store facility. This can be used for tours, selling product and mainly to cut down on import taxes thus, lowering the retail prices and selling more boxes.
2. Expand to Asia, appeal to their sports, interests and likes. Hire an Asian sport ambassador.
3. Have customizable cards in terms of players.
4. For each sport come out with product by team concept, similar to Edmonton Oilers collection but with every product. This allows a fan of a specific team get players they know and like.
5. Make less boxes, too many similar products bringing down value.
6. For redemptions, find a more customer inclusive way to redeeming and appealing to the customer.
7. Expand on interactive features e.g. electronic videos on the card.
8. Have box opening simulation online to encourage and increase sales.
9. Sell more boxes through the UpperDeck website.
10. Offer your own free card value catalog to inflate the value.

GREAT feedback everyone. We are actually going to award three packs to fans who submitted comments here. Congratulations to Remi Paradis, Robert Pihokker & Noah Gigliotti. We will be following up with an email for your address this week.

I can’t believe I missed this. That could’ve been my shot to end my 30yr wait for a Jordan auto (insert temper tantrum). I have a really awesome idea too. Only kidding (mostly)…Congrats to the winners!